US Coast Guard requests proposals for new Polar icebreaker

The U.S. Coast Guard has released a request for proposals for advance procurement and design of a heavy polar icebreaker. The coast guard wants three such ships.

A contract is to be awarded in 2019.

The Congressional Research Service reports that the Coast Guard wants to begin construction of the first new heavy polar icebreaker in FY2019 and have it enter service in 2023. “The acquisition cost of a new heavy polar icebreaker had earlier been estimated informally at roughly $1 billion (U.S), but the Coast Guard and Navy now believe that three heavy polar icebreakers could be acquired for a total cost of about $2.1 billion, or an average of about $700 million per ship,” the research service report noted. “The first ship will cost more than the other two because it will incorporate design costs for the class and be at the start of the production learning curve for the class.”